1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a branch connecting structure for a hoistway cable and, more particularly, to a branch connecting structure for a hoistway cable, which is mounted to a wall of a hoistway to make communication between a machine room for controlling an elevator, and a hall button, provided on a side of an entrance to the elevator in a building and used by a user on each floor to call the elevator, and an indicator indicating the floor at which the elevator is located.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, an elevator, which is used to transport people and freight in a vertical direction, has a hall button on each floor of a building in which the elevator is installed. The hall button is provided on a wall around an entrance to the elevator, and is used by a user to call the elevator. Further, an indicator is provided to indicate in real-time the floor at which the elevator is located currently. The hall button and the indicator are electrically connected to a controller of a machine room which is provided on the upper portion of a hoistway that is the passage through which the elevator moves up and down, so as to control the elevator, so that communication is performed between the hall button and the indicator and the machine room.
Here, a communication cable connecting the hall button and the indicator with the controller of the machine room is commonly referred to as a hoistway cable. The hoistway cable is vertically mounted to a wall of the hoistway, and branches at each floor to be connected to the hall button and the indicator. FIG. 1 schematically shows a conventional branch connecting structure for a hoistway cable.
The conventional hoistway cable comprises a round cable, and includes a plurality of communication wires in a sheath of the cable. Conventionally, in order to branch the hoistway cable to be connected to the hall button and the indicator, as shown in FIG. 1, the hoistway cable is made in the shape of a loop at a branch position and then is fastened by a cable tie. After a sheath is removed from a portion of the loop, one end of a branch cable is connected to each communication wire, and the other end of the branch cable is connected to the hall button and the indicator. Further, in order to prevent undesirable movement, the hoistway cable is fastened to a wall of the hoistway by providing fastening means, such as a fastening clip or a fastening bracket, at predetermined intervals.
However, such a method has the drawback of several operations, including the operation of forming the hoistway cable in the shape of the loop, the operation of fastening the loop by the cable tie, the sheath removing operation, etc., being required, so that the work is difficult and complicated. Further, over time, the cable tie may become unfastened by the hoistway cable's own load so that the loop may be undesirably undone, and thus the hoistway cable may become disconnected from the hall button or the indicator.
In order to solve the problems, the inventors of the present invention have proposed Korean U.M. Registration No. 20-448693. This includes a hoistway cable, a branch cable, a terminal block, and a support block. The hoistway cable has a plurality of communication wires which are arranged in parallel in a sheath having the shape of a flat band. The branch cable connects each communication wire of the hoistway cable with a hall button or an indicator. The terminal block is equipped with a terminal member which cuts through the sheath of the hoistway cable and penetrates into the sheath to be connected to each communication wire. The support block is compressed against and coupled to the terminal block, thus supporting the hoistway cable on the terminal block with each communication wire and the terminal member being connected to each other at a precise position.
According to the U.M. Registration No. 448693, after the conventional hoistway cable comprising a round cable is formed in the shape of the flat band, the terminal block having the terminal member which is connected to each of the communication wires arranged to be parallel to each other is coupled to the hoistway cable. Thereafter, the hoistway cable and the terminal block are secured while being connected to each other by the support block. Each rod terminal of the branch cable is inserted into a terminal hole which is formed in the terminal block.
This is advantageous in that it is unnecessary to manually remove the sheath for the sake of branching and connecting the hoistway cable, and it is easy to distinguish the communication wires in the hoistway cable from each other.
However, this is problematic in that each rod terminal of the branch cable must be individually connected to the terminal hole formed in the terminal block, and it must be verified whether each rod terminal of the branch cable corresponds to each communication wire of the hoistway cable before the rod terminal is connected to the communication wire.